UVA LL.M Experience
First Semester is Over
By Jaan222 on Dec 28, 2008
Dear all, I would like to share with you all my experience here at UVA. First semester is over. I still remember the day I arrived here in Charlottesville Virginia. The town is small but extremely beautiful, full of restaurants and cafes. The weather is pleasant, it is not hot in summer and in winter not that much cold, although it snows but until now i.e. Dec 27, no snow and weather is sunny.
Anyway regarding academics, this university is one of the largest universities in the US. Law School has received high rank and very good reputation. LL.M class is highly selective, 2008/2009 class consists only of 32 students. All students are accomplished persons in their life so it makes our experience a rich one. Law School administration is very helpful, they provide us with all facilities and we never had any complaint against them. Professors are highly distinguished and helpful. It is up to every individual student what he/she wants from this one year. We take classes with JD students where we can learn from them and add to their knowledge new things.
As for funding matters, Many students from our batch received partial tuition fee help from the law school, I am not sure what is gonna be the situation next year, but hopefully law school will be able to provide some assistance in form of partial tuition fee waiver. As for comparison with other law schools, I would like to clarify that there is not that much difference between top law school students when it come to job search, job hunting success depends on individual characteristics, however this year economy is so much bad and every one knows that, so it is almost impossible to find a job with a big law firm in the US but still there are chances and no body should get disappointed.
The most important thing about UVA is that intelligent students might get partial funding, Charlottesville city is cheap and one can live $800-$1000 very easily. University people are friendly and general environment is beautiful. I will encourage you guys to apply here if you have not done already as the deadline is Feb 1, 2009. If you have any questions please feel free to ask me. I would like to make it clear that I am a student and just want to help out other prospect LL.M students, so my perspective is of only a student. I wish you all good luck with application process.
Second Semester is over
By Jaan222 on May 08, 2009
Hello Guys, second semester is over. Every one is happy. Seond semester was very interesting, I enjoyed it fully. It seemed that second semester is shorter than First semester. I can't believe I am done with it. Some important lessons I have learned from this year are as following. First, exam pattern is totally different than civil law countries. Questions are long and complicated. even though we are allowed to take books with us, but that does not help as there is not time to open them. If one open books then you cannot solve the question. In civil law countries we are used to have essay questions where we can write whatever we want according to the book. Here it was totally different. Moreover, one must have to do exam on computer, no handwriting is allowed. Second most important thing is grading system, in which even though one is a very good student, on curve system you go down like B, B-, or B+. It is hard to get an A. It is hard to compete with American students as it is their educational system and English is their first language. If one study hard and devote substantial time for study then you can get high grades.
Now another hurdle is Bar Exam. We have to study all that stuff we have not done in our whole life time or law schools. This is also a challenge. We all hope to pass that. Last hurdle is Job Search, At this time Economy is bad so to get a job on your own is very very hard. I know some people got jobs thorough connections. So it is luck, past experience and connections, every thing plays its role. I would not like to discourage anybody rather I would say, it was very nice and rewarding experience. Good Luck for everybody. Next week we have graduation and most probably, it will be raining. So TO "rainy graduation".
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